After all, what has been said in the foregoing chapters is simply
illustrative of a prevalent mental skin-disorder.

If the whole world were suffering from a physical cutaneous
irritation, the minds of individuals would be so concentrated on
their sensations that no one could know of various wonderful powers
in his own body which are now taken as a matter of course. There
would be self-consciousness in every physical action, because it
must come through, and in spite of, external irritation. Just in so
far as each individual one of us found and used the right remedy for
our skin-trouble should we be free to discover physical powers that
were unknown to our fellow-sufferers, and free to help them to a
similar remedy when they were willing to be helped.

This mental skin-disorder is far more irritating and more
destructive, and not only leads to, but actually is, in all its
forms, a sort of self-consciousness through which we work with real
difficulty.

To discover its shallowness and the simplicity of its cure is a boon
we can hardly realize until, by steady application, we have found
the relief. The discovery and cure do not lead to a millennium any
more than the cure of any skin disease guarantees permanent health.
For deeper personal troubles there are other remedies. Each will
recognize and find his own; but freedom, through and through, can
never be found, or even looked for clearly, while the irritation
from the skin disease is withdrawing our attention.

"But, friends,